


Hunting light

by inthebeginningtherewasM



Series: Cops & Robbers [2]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Agent!Cassian, F/M, I feel this is much differnt than the other one, Modern AU, Thief!Jyn, but maybe I'm mistaken, cat-and-mouse games, halp, let's do this the other way around, what even is tagging, which are fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-03 22:22:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16334339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inthebeginningtherewasM/pseuds/inthebeginningtherewasM
Summary: Jyn Erso is a thief. She's good at it. She likes doing it. If only there wasn't this snooping copper who somehow seems to have decided that he's her nemisis now.





	Hunting light

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, sweet peas!
> 
> Well, I did a thing. I wrote something that is basically the same thing like the other one but is also not?! Help?
> 
> I think I've managed to write it so that you don't have to read [Chasing shadows](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16085960) but if you feel like reading that too then go for it. ;)
> 
> Well, I hope you'll have fun with this.

Jyn’s plan is simple. Get into the gallery when the expensive stuff is on display, latch onto one of the agents positioned to ensure the safety of the stuff and steal it while under the protection of the agent in question. And then get the hell out of dodge.

Her alias has the right connections, she knows pretty much everything about the pieces on display and has the knowledge to let her pass as an art historian, nobody will question her wearing long white gloves with this dress and she is prepared as she can be. She has three exit plans and is prepared for about twenty different worst-case scenarios. What she didn’t plan for was the fact that all those stiff art historians are lecherous bastards that attach themselves to her and give her no opportunity to get even close to the display she has in mind. (Shit, she should have known that the French accent was too much.)

 

She spots the right candidate half an hour later. He’s leaning against the wall, dressed in a not quite fitting suit that doesn’t even hide the fact that he’s carrying. He’s good looking too - scruffy beard, dark eyes – and has apparently noticed her predicament with the old geezers. Maybe she can even use that. She relieves a waiter of two champagne glasses and strides over to him.

“I thought, I’d never get rid of them”, she says, putting just enough exasperation into her voice. She offers him one of the glasses, alcohol lowers inhibitions after all. But he declines. Okay, different tactic.

“ ’umor me? Just pretend?”

She’s turning up the exasperation and feels almost bad when he gives her a good-natured shrug and takes the glass from her. Good. On to creating more familiarity.

“Juliette Marne”

She offers her hand and grabs his, when he says “Special Agent Cassian Andor”.

He has a nice voice. With an accent. Which is unbe-fucking-lievably good concerning the fact that she’s also sporting one. Now they have something in common. Jackpot!

Well, anyway, she doesn’t have all night. Time to crank this up to eleven.

“Well, Special Agent Andor”, Jyn says, laying heavy on the French accent, placing a hand on his ((un)surprisingly muscular) arm, “will you be my knight in shining armour tonight? Protect me from all those dangerous individuals?”

She gestures with her champagne glass as if she’s looking for an English phrase she cannot quite grasp. God bless languages.  

“Are you with me?”

(Not the phrase she intended to use. It does have a nice conspiratorial ring to it though. Like they are indeed in this together.)

He looks at her, eyes intense on hers as if he can see right through her. Odd. _And then he has the nerve to shake his head._

“I’m sorry, but I’m on duty. I cannot leave here.”

Well, he certainly doesn’t _look sorry_. This is disappointing. Jyn leans against the wall, her mind racing. Of course she picked the only hardass in the room. Or is it the dress? The accent? Is he _gay_? (Damn, why are the pretty ones always gay?) She needs to make her exit and find another guy to latch onto. Is it too obvious if she picks another copper? Probably. Maybe that one guest with the farmboy demeanor that kept too close and clumsily stepped on her feet all the time? That might actually work.

Jyn drowns her champagne and has the mind to wink at _Special Agent Andor_. Time to get to work.

  

+++

 

Sometimes Jyn thinks she has the worst luck in the world. It had taken weeks to bring the old man Fletcher to get his Osman Dagger appraised and even longer to get an actual invite. And then, when she’s finally in the building, the copper shows up. _The_ copper. The copper she picked as a target in that one art gallery a few weeks ago. The copper who should have played a part unbeknownst to him but mucked everything up by simply fucking refusing her and doing his job too well. Who would have guessed? And now he is here? This is bad. And from the look on his face he had recognized her too. God- _freaking_ -damnit!

 

+++

 

Escape plans are crucial. Jyn often has more than three, although plans D and F mostly wouldn’t go down without somebody (Jyn) getting hurt. That’s why she doesn’t like plans D and F. She does like plans C and E though. Walking away from the scene unscathed is the most thrilling thing.

She keeps her face away from the cameras as good as she can and wears her current identity - Robina Redmond, rich socialite - like an armor. She has done this before and before, time and time again. Confidence is key. Nobody will suspect her, once the theft is discovered. And the gallery has insurance. Nobody gets hurt.

 

+++

 

Forging identities, creating new personas, hacking into things, planning the heists – this is what Jyn actually likes best about her work. Sure, actually slipping into these carefully created characters and seeing how the plan works out is fun too, not to mention the reward for all this planning, but Jyn prefers the quiet preparations. If she could send in somebody else to do the thieving, that would be great but she knows that she will never trust anybody with her life ever again. She’s made this particular mistake before and it’s not something she means to repeat.

So she creates aliases, characters, legal documents and the forgeries are top-notch if she can say so herself. Which makes it all me more infuriating when she runs smack into Andor completely by chance while on an evening run and he says her name. Her real name. It almost shocks her into complete stillness but thank the stars the moment of paralysis is over fast enough and she sprints away from him and escapes through an alley.

 

+++

 

She is still confused and wary about the fact that Andor knows her real name, a name she hasn’t used or heard said out loud in years – all her contacts know her by the name Lianna Hallik – and somehow she feels uncomfortable on a deeper level. It’s not fear, it’s… _weird_. Who does this man think he is?

She hacks into the FBI database, shamelessly redirects the security cameras to spy on him, calls in favours, even sneaks onto a military base to find some of his old records. (She looks awesome in camouflage gear, by the way.) Andor has put her name on a file, showing her that he knows who she is. But well, two can play this game.

 

+++

 

Jyn shouldn’t have so much fun with this. It’s different, now that she knows that someone is actively chasing her. She leaves stuff for him behind to find, little teasing messages somewhat of calling cards, that will show him that she knows exactly as much about him as he knows about her. (Granted, maybe the red rose had been a little much. What was she thinking?)

It’s a hunting game, a cat-and-mouse where it’s not clear who’s the cat and who’s the mouse, and he’s not giving up, is always after her. She’s grinning at him when he runs after her to a rooftop, seeing him pant and contort his face in frustration. She blows him a mocking kiss before hurling herself over the edge, whooping when the wind pulls at her hair and she plunges before the parachute opens and she is flying. She thinks she hears an angry shout but the rooftop is obscured by her shoot. She’s in a hurry anyway. In the meantime she knows him well enough to be sure that he will call in a chopper to look for her.

 

+++

 

It had been an idiotic idea to take this particular job but on the other hand it had sounded like good money and easy work. Too easy. It almost serves Jyn right that it worked out so badly and that she’s now standing in a building that will burn to the ground, nursing a split lip, a stinging pain down the left side of her face and what is probably one or two broken bones in her right hand. (At least the mark’s gorilla didn’t get away without a pretty shiner and a broken nose.) She has to get out of here.

Is it fate or another streak of bad luck that Special Agent Cassian Andor shows up not more than two minutes after hell breaks loose? Jyn isn’t sure. She’s also not sure if the horror on his face when she sees her battered body is real or if it’s just some kind of tender hallucination. That somebody actually cares. (At this point her brain probably would come up with anything. Andor is not really a stretch.) Still she takes a tentative step in his direction. And another one. There is so much smoke and she can’t quite see straight and really, she is so tired.

But then there are strong arms around her and she is all but carried down the stairs.

Later, from the back of the ambulance, she steals a small medical kit and a bottle of painkillers, while Andor is on the phone. She slips away like she always does, this time her only prize a leather jacket. What’s new is that she watches from a dark alley on the other side of the street. Just for a little while.

 

+++

 

Wearing the stupid leather jacket becomes something of an annoying habit. She dons it when she’s pacing one of her condos, trying to work out the kinks of the next plan. She wears it over jumpers and sweatpants and when she tries on dresses she needs for work. There is no other reason than that it’s actually a nice jacket, even though the patches at the elbows are worn down and there is a rip on the inside. (It’s really easy to sew back together, why hasn’t he done that already?) It’s surprisingly warm too and its earthy smell always makes her feel calm and focused for some reason. It’s a really nice jacket!

 

+++

 

Jyn isn’t without conscience. She just usually ignores the nagging and the small voices in the back of her head. But this one is surprisingly loud.

_He saved your life. You just disappeared on him and didn’t even say thank you._

It’s annoying but it comes round and round and round. And a Thank you-note will probably not suffice. (Although she’d be highly interested in seeing Andor’s face when he found something like it in his office. A singing telegram maybe? One that comes naked?)

In the end she just hacks into the FBI database again. Finds the next case Andor gets assigned and books a flight. Boston. She has the file printed and listens to accent coaches and podcasts and news outlets from the area to get a feel for the speech patterns.

It’s almost too easy to get to the location, flashing the fake badge and get all the intel. The agent on scene is the greenest rookie ever to lead a case and Jyn actually fears that the children taken hostage are getting hurt because of his incompetence.

She’s almost relieved when Andor shows up to take over. (Which is exactly why she is here in the first place but all things considered it’s better for all parties involved that Andor is here. No, really.)

He shoots her a pained look, one only she gets to see and tells her to stay out of this but Jyn is determined. She will get even with him for saving her life and if it kills her. (Well, that would actually defeat its whole purpose but hey, it’s a figure of speech.) Also, she doesn’t like it when he underestimates her. Or orders her around. She’s right beside him, covering him even without a gun and they walk with purpose and get the job done without any of the children getting hurt. Same thing cannot be said for the kidnappers though but seriously this one guy had it coming. Saw showed her a lot of moves in the past.

She puts the FBI windbreaker and the stolen Kevlar vest on a crate while Andor talks to some of the kids. Everything is done, they are even. The voice is silent when she slips away, thank God.

 

+++

 

Is she getting careless or is he just _still getting better_? Jyn doesn’t know. She bites the inside of her cheek, toying with the handcuffs she’s opened a while ago but leaves around her wrists so nobody gets alarmed and restrains her further. She goes through the maneuvers to escape in her head but somehow still ends up with the infuriating question what went wrong on this heist and how Andor managed to subdue her.

She’s pretty sure he’s behind the two-way mirror and does her best not to look too nervous or thoughtful. (Bored seems to be the best angle here. Look bored, Jyn, bored.)

In the end she takes her chance when she hears a door slam somewhere close. She doesn’t want to use the small EMP device hidden on her body (because it was bloody expensive) but if this is not an emergency then she doesn’t know what is. She slips out of the interrogation room in the darkness, ignoring all the cries and stumbles of the FBI agents and only briefly wonders where Andor has gone. She has memorized the outlay of this building months ago, just in case. Into a ventilation shaft and gone.

 

+++

 

She’s actually always hated the honey trap maneuver since it usually means that people remember too much about her. She can play into people’s vanities or stroke their egos but she doesn’t like to play with their feelings that way. She doesn’t like to pretend she could be something for them she’s not. Even if the side she shows them is a mask she’s invented and not real in any way.

But even with all her preparation and the device she’s procured from one of her sources she still needs to get into the bank to get to the vault. And unfortunately, that means to get close to the bank manager. Close enough that he will want to impress her with the old vault where kings have deposited their jewels when they’ve come to visit the Americas. With its steel door and code sequences and all the other stuff the security engineer she’s miming would be impressed with.

She is pleasant and laughs at the manager’s bad jokes, lets her hand linger on his arm, gazes into his eyes too long. It takes a few “dates” but it works. Jyn hates it. She _hates_ it. (Yes, the guy is just a means to an end but she still feels dirty. She’d rather crawl through ventilation shafts or pretend to be an heiress who seeks for a safe place for her precious jewelry. But this time it just wouldn’t work like this.)

The vault _is_ actually quite something. Built many, many floors under the street so nobody can tunnel in from one of the adjacent buildings and enforced with heavy steel plates. They left many of the original cast iron grating intact, as an esthetic divide between the different sections. But the distraction in the manager’s office set up earlier works like a charm. She can go right to work. There are cameras (easy to bypass), heat sensors (turned off by the manager, obviously), an alarm to activate from the inside of the vault (pfft, really?) and the vault door (open since she’s still in there. Idiot manager.)

There is also Special Agent Cassian Andor, who all but slides into the vault while she is opening the safety deposit box she’s had her eye on for months. Bloody hell? He seems to be in a hurry and slams his hand on the inside alarm. Which naturally closes the vault door and locks them in. Jyn all but sighs and raises an eyebrow at Andor.

“Seriously?”

He doesn’t look smug or embarrassed or satisfied in any way. No, he just sports that infuriating blank expression he seems to be quite fond of. Now Jyn really sighs. She contemplates using her backup escape plan but isn’t sure if she wants to show Andor even more of her secrets than he already knows about. Then again, the man already knows far too much anyway. This might not even surprise him anymore. (She still feels too annoyed to give in and get them both out of there.) She places a hand against the cool metal of the vault door before sitting on the floor, leaning her back against it. They might be here a while. Might as well get comfortable.

 

+++

 

At two in the morning ambulance sirens are blaring down the street. They are loud enough to wake a whole galaxy but Jyn didn’t sleep anyway. Her thoughts keep her awake. Memories of the day before, of the stupid conversation with Andor while they were both trapped in this stupid vault.

_“Why? Why me?”_

_“You are still here. You’re a constant. A touchstone.”_

_“A touchstone?”_

_“In my line of work you don’t form any connections. You get in, you get out. And afterwards everybody goes their separate ways. You always come after me.”_

_“You know that chasing you is my job, don’t you?”_

_“You could have given the cases to others. When I started to get...personal...you could have put it down. But you didn’t. Why didn’t you?”_

 

He didn’t give her an answer back then but that’s not what’s bothering Jyn anyway. Where had this whole thing come from? She isn’t even sure it had been a lie. Is she really that starved for human connection and company that she welcomes the presence of the law in her life? The more she thinks about it, the worse it gets. Because she knows that she enjoys those little games with Andor. And she shouldn’t. No matter how sure she still is that he might feel the same about this whole crazy thing they got. (She is sure she saw it in his eyes. She’s gotten quite good at reading him over time. And she has begrudgingly to admit that he probably knows about her as well.)

Jyn throws off her blanket and walks over to her computer. If she cannot sleep she might as well go and work on another project. Keep her mind off things.

 

+++

 

Jyn paces the condo she’s currently living in. Climbs the back of the couch, steps onto the desk next to it. Walks back, grips the curtain at the window, lifts herself onto the windowsill, jumps onto the kitchen table, never touching the floor like she’s playing an elaborate game of The floor is lava. Jyn is angry, so angry her fingernails dig into her palm until there’s blood. She’s still wearing the stupid leather jacket, so she sheds it and throws it across the room in a fit of rage. (She also steps on a chair, climbs a bookshelf and uses her toes to grab the jacket from the floor again. It’s a great jacket.)

Then she hurls other stuff across the condo. Books, a vase, a frame with a photoshopped picture of her with people who could be her family.

“Krennic”, she hisses. “Krennic, Krennic, _Krennic_.”

The news filters she’s programmed found something she definitely didn’t think she’d ever have to deal with again. It’s irrational how much the reappearance of this man throws her off balance. It’s stupid that she still cares. How much it still _hurts_. She has put it behind her years and years ago. It’s stupid and irrational and she’s going to do something stupid and irrational if she doesn’t get a hold on her emotions.

Breathe, Jyn. Breathe.

 

+++

 

She thinks. She ponders. She plots. She _plans_. And then Jyn throws all the thoughts and plans out the window because actually thinking that she can take down a bloody Government armsdealer is pure insanity. She would need tons of evidence, she would need to catch this guy _in the act_.  It would take months of preparation. It would take a whole lot more than just one person. It would take a contact in law enforcement to get this guy arrested. Come to think of it….Nope, it’s insanity. Stop with the pondering, Jyn. Stop.

But she can’t stop thinking about it. Thinks about the pain and the heartbreak the man inflicted, thinks of all the victims that were and all the victims that undoubtedly _will be_.

 

+++

 

This is a bad idea. Jyn thinks so and so would he. Probably. She’s lying flat on her stomach in a ventilation shaft (you would think that the FBI building would have higher security standards since she walked out of there last time) and observes the redheaded guy and the lady in the white suit talking about stuff through a shutter. (Not even screwed in from the outside, what is wrong with these people?) It’s boring, really. But she also knows that she has to wait for the right time to make her pitch.

Jyn goes through her little speech in her head again. It’s a bad idea. But everytime she wants to discard it, Krennic’s face appears in front of her inner eye and she starts fuming and squirming again. Her short temper and lack of impulse control will get her killed someday.

 

+++

 

She is standing in front of Andor’s desk. Jyn has never seen Andor’s desk except from grainy surveillance camera footage and is not beyond snooping around. Everything is so neat. All his files are stacked, there are almost no sticky notes in use, everything is catalogued and labelled. There is nothing personal on his desk, no pictures of a family, no trinkets or souvenirs, not even a potted plant. The only thing Jyn finds in one of the drawers is a child’s crayon drawing of an old black man and a little dark-haired girl. **Jyn** **♡** **Saw**

Jyn stares at the drawing. Stares until her eyes burn. Where did he get this?

There are steps behind her. She snags a pen and a blank sticky note and scribbles a note. Sticks it to the drawing before turning around and facing the person who’s coming her way.

She can feel Andor’s scrutinizing look on her, feels how he takes in her appearance, trying to hide the shock that she’s there. (Does he notice that she is wearing the jacket? She put it on to make her feel less vulnerable while on hostile territory but now she just feels weird.)

Maybe it was a bad idea. To walk into the FBI building and dangle the possibility to nail a major criminal in exchange for her walking away unscathed. She gains everything from this, while he gains absolutely nothing. She could have asked for anybody else as a “partner” but she didn’t. She should have walked away from this pitch, this crazy idea to get Krennic to justice by working _with the FBI_. But she didn’t. She just stares back as he stares at her.

“Took you forever in there”, she says finally when she cannot stand the silence anymore.

He’s not saying anything. This is a bad idea. This will bite her in the ass. This will end with her in handcuffs, withering away in some women’s state prison. Andor’s eyes are really brown. He keeps staring.

Jyn breathes in and steels herself. She has come up with a little speech for Andor as well but now she somehow chokes on the words. It doesn’t work like this. Not when he seems to be looking straight into her soul.

“I know you don’t like it”, she says finally because _fuck it_ , there is no going back.

“And I don’t really like it either. But we are in this together now. Or do you want us to get back to our meaningless cat-and-mouse games while people die? Because I might be a criminal but I’ve never been responsible for anyone’s death before. So, are you with me or not?”

How does this man keep staring? Does he want to make her squirm? Is he just torturing her and enjoying seeing her like this because she has humiliated him time and time again over the last months? Does he not see that this is bigger than their little feud? More important? Or has the redhead not told him enough about this mission they are embarking on now? (Bastard. He certainly looks like someone who wouldn’t give his underlings all the facts.)

But then he extends his hand, waiting for her to take it. It’s pathetic how fast she reaches for it.

“All the way”, Cassian says and Jyn clings to the tiny sliver of hope that he might actually mean it.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts? Ideas? Things for Jyn to steal?


End file.
